Y'know, writing 2 posts in one day seems so foreign when you write like 3 posts a year. But to those few who still check this crap whenever, cool.
So we're almost to the end of another year - where does the time go? 2012 was definitely a slow year in terms of new music for me (I'm still bitter about HMV closing), but I still picked new stuff up here and there - even if it's not from 2012. So here's a summary of everything musical that happened with me in these past 11 months and 19 days:
Albums I bought/heard in 2012:
Imaginaerum - Nightwish
Th1rt3en - Megadeth
F-Zero AX/GX Official Soundtrack - Nintendo [composed by Daiki Kasho]
Opus At the End of Everything - The Flashbulb
The Power Within - DragonForce
Helvetios - Eluveitie
Shogun - Trivium
Short Songs - Silverstein
Code of Princess Original Soundtrack - Atlus [composed by ACE]
The Afterman: Ascension - Coheed and Cambria
Epsilon - Blood Stain Child
I'm Coming Home - Tommy Alto
My thoughts:
Imaginaerum: Wow.. Just, wow. This album is spectacular in the sense that it's just.. epic. And I rarely use that word. The orchestral pieces, the shifting genres, the excellence of songs, this is a truly solid album.
A- 8.5/10
Th1rt3en: And the opposite end of the spectrum; there's a couple decent songs, and at least one good one, but this just isn't that great. Sudden Death is pretty rockin' though.
D- 3/10
F-Zero GX/AX OST: I love this game, and obviously the soundtrack, but that doesn't make it perfect. But with 82 songs to pick from, there's bound to be something you like (although I hate how 10-15 of them are like 20 seconds or less.). And those tracks that keep me around are great, and I discover new gems everytime.
B+ 8/10
Opus At the End of Everything: Decent Flashbulb album. Not my favourite, but there's still some great songs. I have yet to hear his other new album yet, but I'm satisfied with what I have.
C+ 6.5/10
The Power Within: I've never heard a better DragonForce album. They try some new things here, which is nice, but it is hit and miss with it. The hits, though, they hit a home run! This is a fun album. That's the best way to put it.
B+ 8/10
Helvetios: I'm a fan of concept albums, but I'm moreso a fan of concept albums where you can listen to the songs out of order, and still enjoy it. That's basically this album. I'm not a fan of everything, but most of it is still good.
B 7.5/10
Shogun: Yay for albums released in 2008 making it to a 2012 list. This is another one of those albums I've heard before, but wanted to pick up for myself (Only Inhuman is another one of those). There's some tracks that really stand out and they make the album for me. The rest is meh; filler.
B- 7/10
Short Songs: When I said The Power Within was fun, it's still got nothing on this. Half a collection of hardcore punk/post-hardcore short songs (there's a reason for the title) and half a collection of punk rock covers, this album clocks in at UNDER 20 minutes despite having 22 songs. Even so, it's one of my favourites from this year.
A 9.5/10
Code of Princess: Thank God you were free in the sense that you came packaged with an alright game. It's okay, but there's really only one song I like and a couple others I'll let play through.D
D- 3/10
The Afterman: Ascension: Great; have 2 of my favourite band release EXCELLENT albums in the same year, and have them BOTH have new albums coming out next February? Just take my money, why don't you. Also, this is one of my all time favourite albums and probably my top Coheed album. Long live The Amory Wars!
A 9.5/10
Epsilon: Japanese melodic death metal with techno/trance mixed in? ALRIGHT WHY NOT? Seriously though, this album was pretty awesome. A few so-so tracks, but those that stood out all stood out in a way that can only be described as amazing. Definitely a welcome find.
A- 8.5/10
I'm Coming Home: Okay, yeah, Indie Pop is NOT my genre, but the guy making the music is a cool dude (you meet some interesting folks in Journalism classes) and I actually had fun listening to the album. One or two songs I didn't like, but the rest I enjoyed and had fun with.
B 7.5/10
In other news, I went to my second concert ever on February 20th: The Gigantour.
Who played: Megadeth (headliner), Mötorhead, Volbeat, Lacuna Coil.
Gotta love it when your line-up consists of 4 bands from 4 countries (US, UK, Denmark, Italy respectively). The show took place at the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre, and I had floor seats so I got right up and close to all the goodness.
Lacuna Coil is not one of my favourites, but their set was really good. I recognized about a third of their setlist (Our Truth, Spellbound to name a couple) and they definitely hit it. Cristina Scabbia was excellent and definitely caught most of the attention on the stage (man alive, she is definitely one of the best looking women in metal).
Volbeat came up afterwards and BLEW EVERYBODY AWAY. I had 5 friends there, and only 2 knew of Volbeat; by the end of the night, they were on everyone's minds. The Facebook statuses pretty much unanimously read: "Megadeth was great, but Volbeat was AWESOME!" Starting off with A Warrior's Call, they ran right into Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood. And you can see that right here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150554626782693&set=vb.667302692&type=3
I can't recall the rest of their set (I got the rest of their stuff afterwards), but it was simply phenominal.
PS. Apologies for the video.
Not going to lie, I went to go get a Volbeat shirt during Mötorhead because I'm not a big fan of theirs. They did play Ace of Spades (which was awesome), and Overkill, but their set had some pretty bad mic feedback issues. They did score bonus points for the drum solo though.
Megadeth finished it off with an hour-and-fifteen set that covered a fair amount of their discog: Trust, Whose Life (Is It Anyway?), Symphony of Destruction, etc., and finished it off with Holy Wars. I said to my buddy I'd mosh during Sweating Bullets (my favourite), but they sadly didn't play it. It was still one heck of a show though!
In terms of music gaming, FFR and StepMania took a backseat this year, but I did get my first file in the game. Theatrhythm was in my 3DS for a good chunk of time and I've unlocked everything save for a couple characters. Once I get my 3DS fixed, I'll definitely be inserting it again.
I reviewed Coheed and Cambria's "The Afterman: Ascension" for my OLD university's student paper (I have a couple connections)! So I got kicked out of X school, am going to Y for a journalism degree, and yet got published in X's newspaper. I know, confusing.
Anyway, that's my year in review.
2013 already looks promising with "This Is How the Wind Shifts" from Silverstein, and "The Afterman: Descension" from Coheed and Cambria set to hit in early February, and hopefully a bunch more fun stuff will arrive soon after!
Take care, folks, stay safe this holiday season, and through New Years, an may you all have a happy 2013 being able to say "I SURVIVED 2012!"
And when things are good, bad, happy, or sad, just do one thing: Keep your headphones on.
- Trevor // Force
